The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
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CHAPTER XXXIII 160<br />
For a long time after Elias had become silent Ibarra remained thoughtful, not answering him or saying a word.<br />
"I'm sorry that that man is dead!" he exclaimed at length. "From him something more might have been<br />
learned."<br />
"If he had lived, he would have escaped from the trembling hand of blind human justice. God has judged him,<br />
God has killed him, let God be the only Judge!"<br />
Crisostomo gazed for a moment at the man, who, while he spoke thus, exposed his muscular arms covered<br />
with lumps and bruises. "Do you also believe in the miracle?" he asked with a smile. "You know what a<br />
miracle the people are talking about."<br />
"Were I to believe in miracles, I should not believe in God. I should believe in a deified man, I should believe<br />
that man had really created a god in his own image and likeness," the mysterious pilot answered solemnly.<br />
"But I believe in Him, I have felt His hand more than once. When the whole apparatus was falling down and<br />
threatening destruction to all who happened to be near it, I, I myself, caught the criminal, I placed myself at<br />
his side. He was struck and I am safe and sound."<br />
"You! So it was you--"<br />
"Yes! I caught him when he tried to escape, once his deadly work had begun. I saw his crime, and I say this to<br />
you: let God be the sole judge among men, let Him be the only one to have the right over life, let no man ever<br />
think to take His place!"<br />
"But you in this instance--"<br />
"No!" interrupted Elias, guessing the objection. "It's not the same. When a man condemns others to death or<br />
destroys their future forever he does it with impunity and uses the strength of others to execute his judgments,<br />
which after all may be mistaken or erroneous. But I, in exposing the criminal to the same peril that he had<br />
prepared for others, incurred the same risk as he did. I did not kill him, but let the hand of God smite him."<br />
"<strong>The</strong>n you don't believe in accidents?"<br />
"Believing in accidents is like believing in miracles; both presuppose that God does not know the future. What<br />
is an accident? An event that no one has at all foreseen. What is a miracle? A contradiction, an overturning of<br />
natural laws. Lack of foresight and contradiction in the Intelligence that rules the machinery of the world<br />
indicate two great defects."<br />
"Who are you?" Ibarra again asked with some awe.<br />
"Have you ever studied?"<br />
"I have had to believe greatly in God, because I have lost faith in men," answered the pilot, avoiding the<br />
question.<br />
Ibarra thought he understood this hunted youth; he rejected human justice, he refused to recognize the right of<br />
man to judge his fellows, he protested against force and the superiority of some classes over others.<br />
"But nevertheless you must admit the necessity of human justice, however imperfect it may be," he answered.<br />
"God, in spite of the many ministers He may have on earth, cannot, or rather does not, pronounce His<br />
judgments clearly to settle the million conflicts that our passions excite. It is proper, it is necessary, it is just,<br />
that man sometimes judge his fellows."